


Not Ready

by theonewhohums



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 10:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8745877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonewhohums/pseuds/theonewhohums
Summary: When Maka’s pregnancy test comes back positive, everyone is in hysterics.





	

Everyone was in hysterics, for different reasons.

Tsubaki was crying. Tears were streaming down her face so quickly Maka almost couldn’t tell that she was smiling through them. Jackie and Kim were cheering and yelling “Congratulations!” Patti was climbing on the couch and shouting in victory, screaming “Black Star owes  me fifty bucks because I FREAKING CALLED IT” while Liz was trying to get her sister to sit down.

Maka looked like she was going to be sick.

“I don’t think you guys get it,” Maka says to the group of females all gathered around her in one of then many rooms of the Gallows Mansion. “This isn’t a good thing, this is a disastrously bad thing.”

Tsubaki wipes the tears and snot from her face long enough to look at her best friend tenderly. “Maka, what are you talking about? This is amazing news! You’re going to have a _baby._ ”

Maka stands up suddenly. “And none of you see how that’s a bad thing? This is Soul and me we’re talking about! We’re twenty! Our life together has just started! He’s a Death Scythe and I just got my teaching job at Shibusen and everything was PERFECT until this happened! We were happy! But now it’s going to be nothing but stress and late night feedings and day care and diapers and child care books and I— _we’re_ not ready for that! We—we can’t even remember to turn the iron off when we’re finished using it! We’re not ready for this!”

Now _she_ was getting hysterical. Liz and Kim come over to her, putting their hands on her shoulders and instructing her to sit down. 

“Well, have you thought about abortion?” Liz asks gently. “I don’t really know what you’re stance is on it, but if you’re not ready…”

Maka puts her head in her hands. “I haven’t even told Soul yet, let alone think about how we’re going to handle it.” She takes a deep breath. “We were so _careful_. We used condoms every freaking time. Why do we have to be the two percent whose lives get screwed over?”

“I feel like you’re looking at this the wrong way,” Patti says, surprising everyone with how serious she sounds. “Out of all of us, you and Soul are definitely the most equipped to have a kid. You guys love each other a lot, don’t you?”

Maka wipes her misty eyes. “Well, yeah, but—”

“So what makes you think you won’t love your baby just as much? Maka, you’re really really smart! You can read a ton of those parenting books like you’re studying for a big test, and when the baby comes you’ll be ready for it! And Soul’s gonna be there for you like he always is, isn’t he?”

“I don’t think it’s that easy, Patti,” Maka sniffs.

The younger girl only pouts. “I don’t see why it can’t be.”

Liz rubs her younger sister’s back. “Caring for another person is tough work, Patti. You gotta make sure you’re doing everything you can to make sure they’re happy and safe. You know how we gotta make sure everything is nice and symmetrical for Kid so he doesn’t get sad? Imagine doing stuff like that 24/7 for a little baby that can’t speak to tell you what it wants.”

Patti purses her lips in thought, then nods. “I guess you’re right, sis. I’d be worried about messing up.”

Maka looks to her friends again. “See? And how can we not mess up? Neither of us had great role models for parents. My dad was a rotten cheater and my mom abandoned me, and the Evans barely even paid attention to Soul.” She looks down and shakes her head, feeling more tears well up in her eyes. “We’re not ready for this. I can’t have this baby. If it doesn’t ruin our lives, we might ruin its.”

“Baby?”

Its like the stars have aligned that day to ruin Maka’s life. First the pink little plus sign on the pregnancy test mocking her incompetency as an adult, and now Soul walking into the room, face as white has his hair and looking absolutely petrified. Maka hadn’t known how she was going to break the news to Soul, but she knew that him walking in on their conversation was definitely not the way she wanted to do it.

“Soul!” she cries out, standing up. She doesn’t know what to do. Her weapon looks very close to passing out and she’s honestly starting to feel a little dizzy herself.

“Baby?”

It seems all Soul’s capably of doing is swaying back and forth and repeating that dreaded word. 

Jackie saves them both from blacking out from fright by lowering Maka back to the couch, then walking over and taking Soul by the hand. He doesn’t even look like he sees her at first, but after a tug or two he’s moving toward the crowd of women, led by Jackie, whose face is the picture of calm.

She leads Soul down to the couch across from Maka, taking extra care to make sure he’s going to stay upright before releasing his hand. She then grabs Kim by the hand and eyes the other women in the room.

“Maybe we should leave Maka and Soul alone for little bit. Ladies?”

And like that, everyone is standing and leaving the two alone, much to Maka’s chagrin. The last thing she wants is to be left alone with Soul, who looks practically catatonic.

The door clicks behind them, and a heavy silence falls upon them, thick with tension, at least on Maka’s end. She isn’t even sure if Soul is breathing.

“Listen, Soul—”

“Baby?” He interrupts her, but this time he doesn’t look inches from death. He’s asking her a question now.

Maka sighs and rubs her hands over her face. “Yeah. I’m apparently pregnant. I took like seven tests this morning to be sure.” She looks up at him. “I—I didn’t want you to find out this way. Hell, I was afraid to tell you at _all_ , but this is definitely not how I would have done it.”

“You’re going to have a baby?”

He seems very stuck on that word, and Maka has half the mind to tell him to stop saying it. 

She’s tired of talking, so she just nods, waiting for his reaction. 

“What do you want to do?” he asks quietly.

Well, that question isn’t helpful at all. _Throw up,_ is what she thinks, but being sarcastic doesn’t seem like the best option right now, no matter how true that thought is. She shrugs, feeling bad for not contributing much to the conversation, but at the same time not knowing what to say. She hasn’t studied for this. She doesn’t know the answer.

“Are you scared?”

That one she can answer, though suddenly her throat starts to sting and it takes everything in her not to burst into tears at that moment. She swallows thickly and closes her eyes, nodding at him.

She still hasn’t opened her eyes, but she can feel the couch dip a little bit next to her and his arm looping around her shoulders as he pulls her close to him. She can hear his heartbeat when he pulls her to his chest, fast and slightly erratic, and his hands are shaking a bit as he pets her hair, but she doesn’t mind. It’s still Soul and he’s still there for her, doing everything right when everything about this situation is wrong.

He kisses the crown of her head. “Me too.” He’s silent for a moment before continuing. “But I think we could do it.”

Maka opens her eyes slowly and pulls her head away from him so she can look at his face. “You do?” she asks, her voice still wet.

He smiles a little. “Maka, we’ve known each other for almost eight years. We’ve killed a witch, defeated the Kishin, made me a Death Scythe, and become one of the most well-known meister-weapon pairs in the Western Hemisphere. When I’m with you, I feel like we can do anything. So this is just one more thing we’ll get through together, right?”

She clutches his arms. “But don’t you see? We’d being throwing all that away! I won’t be able to be your meister for months, and you’ll be too busy taking care of me and the baby to go on missions! All that we’ve been through will have been flushed down the toilet for one heated night on the couch and I don’t—”

He silences her by pressing his lips to hers. She’s panicking, she wants to scream and rant that this is a terrible idea, but Soul tenderly kissing her soothes her, if only a little. He pulls back a little and touches her face.

“Having a baby won’t be the end of the world, Maka. In fact, it might be the beginning of something really cool.”

He uses his old catchphrase and Maka finds herself smiling despite her inner turmoil. She hates and loves that he can have that affect on her, even in a time like this.

“And it’s not like we’re going to have to quit our jobs. Stein and Miss Marie had a kid right after the Kishin was destroyed, and things are fine for them! He still teaches and she still goes on missions with Kid. We’re still gonna be us even though we’ll be parents.”

Maka bites her lip. “But parents at twenty? Me breastfeeding before I’m even old enough to legally drink?”

Soul kisses her again. “You don’t like alcohol that much anyway.”

” _Soul._ ”

He grabs her hands and looks into her eyes, looking completely sincere. 

“Look, I know it’s not going to be easy. Having a kid is going to be messy and stressful and might drive us both a little crazy.” Then he grins at her, that lopsided, shark-toothed smile that she loves so much. “But there’s no one in the world that I would rather do this with than you.” He squeezes her hands gently. “I want to do this. With you. And I hope you’ll feel the same way.”

She takes a deep breath. She’s still certainly afraid. Having a baby is going to be the scariest thing she ever does, Kishin-be-damned. But Soul’s right. Together they are the strongest force she knows of, and she knows there’s no one else she would rather go through this with than the man sitting next to her holding her hands.

“Okay,” she says finally, not letting her voice waver. “We’re going to have a baby.”

She leans in and kisses him again, feeling the strength they share and praying that it will be enough. It’s not until they hear the female shouts of triumph from the other side of the door that they pull apart. Soon Tsubaki is running through the door, mascara running and blubbering like a baby as she envelops them both in a tight hug, and soon everyone is in hysterics again.

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally published 2/26/15)


End file.
